One secluded cliff juts into the ocean off Pebble Beach's 17-Mile-Drive. The surf spot is like a ghost. An entire year can go by, and you would not be able to tell there is a wave there at all. But Friday's northwest swell was the most powerful of the winter and exactly the type that Ghost Tree likes.

While professional big wave surfers were competing Friday on 40-foot waves at Mavericks in Half Moon Bay, Calif., for a world-wide audience, three nameless, secretive surfers quietly paddled out at Ghost Tree.

Blazes raging in forests and woodlands across California have taken the life of a firefighter and forced hundreds of people to flee their homes as crews continue to battle the flames from the air and the ground.